The European Union deplores the putsch that led to the imprisonment of Niger's president Mamadou Tandja, dpa quoted a spokesman for the bloc's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton as saying today. Lutz Guellner stated that Ashton "condemns the seizure of the power by a military coup d'etat in Niger and calls upon all actors involved to engage immediately in a democratic process allowing for rapid establishment of the constitutional order in the country." He added that the EU's high representative was following the crisis "closely" and shared the "deep concern" expressed over the events by the African Union (AU) and by the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS).
